Bolt, an Estonian startup that helps its users share cars and scooters as well as get quick deliveries, has raised €628 million at a valuation of €7.4 billion.
Bolt was founded in 2013 and the startup is mainly focused on areas such as software development, mobility, ride-hailing and food tech. Currently operating in over 45 countries and serving more than 75 million customers, Bolt is one of the fastest growing startups in the world.
In the beginning of its journey, Bolt started serving customers mainly in Eastern Europe and Africa. Unlike most of its competitors who usually focus on providing one service on each app, Bolt’s approach involves diversification. So, this helps Bolt in things like reducing marketing costs and cross-selling its services to its customers. This approach, along with the innovative solutions it brings to the table, made Bolt the very successful startup that it currently is.
The startup keeps growing despite many challenges
According to Markus Villig, the CEO of Bolt, all of their units, including their most mature business as well as their more recent businesses, are growing. Bolt now plans to grow into new areas, attract more users and expand its services with the latest funding it received. Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management and Research Company LLC led the funding round alongside Whale Rock, Owl Rock, D1, G Squared, Tekne, Ghisallo as well as other unspecified investors.
Even though these are great news for Bolt, the startup didn’t lack serious challenges throughout its journey. Aside from talking about the growth of the startup, Villig also added that they faced some “short-term fluctuations” in how much demand they had when the Covid lockdowns started. However, with the most recent funding that Bold had received, it now seems to be in a great shape to keep growing.
